2026 maintenance tasks

Published 22:20 on 20 Dec 2025

Gabion fill time! 

If you fancy a good workout for your core hiking muscles plus strength work for your arms and legs, whilst burning off some of that Christmas excess, forget the gym - we have just the activity for you! 

Please come down to the club at any time over the holidays and fill up some of the gabions cages which are form the new bank stabilisation work adjacent to the Laser rows. 

The Wednesday Club have built up most of the gabion cages, these now need filling with the rubble from the big pile next to the safety boat slipway.  When filling it is best to try and place the heavier rubble nearest the bank and the lighter stuff nearer the water.  Once full just flick the lid on and move to the next one. You will just need gardening type gloves your wellies and a buoyancy aide for if you climb down to the side of the lake.  We will leave the wheelbarrows next to the rubble pile.

Weed Management 2026

We have adopted a two-stage approach to weed management at Hunts:

Stage 1: Starting from the middle of January, if the water temperature starts to reach 10°C we need to start harrowing the lakebed. Our chain harrow is similar to those used by farmers (albeit some years ago). This initial phase of harrowing is particularly important, as it pulls out new shoots, buries seedlings deeper to hinder their germination, and stirs up the sediment, resulting in high levels of turbidity.   

Stage 2: This is then followed by the addition of food dye to the water, which aims to reduce sunlight penetration to the plants on the lakebed.

We have emailed all those members who indicated weed trawling as one of their duty options. We have also had a lot of members expressing a wish to help, so this information is aimed at them. Volunteer activities will include helming the launch, serving as shore crew or powerboat helm. If harrowing occurs outside of regular club activities days, we will operate a buddy system. The buddy must be able to access the Bosun's Hut, be trained to use the tractor, and be capable of launching a Dory single-handedly. This is a precaution in case the launch encounters any issues.

Pulling the harrow is a task for the launch, but we will also require a Dory to be in operation. The Dories will be equipped with a collection net at the front to capture any remnants of last years weed growth that become detached and float to the surface.

Please email commodore@huntssc.org.uk to confirm whether you would like to support this activity. At this stage, we are just seeking names of members who want to participate in the harrowing of the lakebed. We will provide training in early January and more operational information nearer the time.

Last updated 23:06 on 20 December 2025